Overcoming the Language Barrier

Even if you had it all planned out from the beginning, it is always hard. Language barriers are one of the most intimidating parts of being an immigrant. Other aspects are quite as challenging, but the language is the most tasking. For one a person has to try and conform to the other language in the shortest time. The age at which someone moves is also crucial in how effective their communication shift will be. Since most restaurants in France use French, I was forced to teach myself how to order in English. Speaking to the waitresses was also a problem because all my instincts were in French. I would handle the first part perfectly then when it came to saying thank you or asking for a knife or even calling the waiter in between the meal I would find myself using French I remember one time a waiter spilled sauce on my blouse as she was walking by and she didn’t apologize.

I called her back and asked her to apologize and asked for napkins all in French. She was just staring at me, she finally muttered an apology and said she didn’t realize what she had done. It wasn’t perfect English at first, but I improved with time. I would offer to order through the phone whenever we were eating take away. Next up I used a lot of apps. In France, I used French in most scenarios, over the phone, at school, in the market and many other places. Therefore when I moved here, I knew the names of certain objects but what I didn’t know was how to connect the sentences. All I had to do was to click on them, and they would be pronounced in English.

The apps were also very useful in pronunciation. As mentioned before I had a very rich French accent, to the extent that my English was affected. To help with that, I would type in letters, long or short and the apps would help me pronounce them accurately. This was very helpful because most of the kids would make fun of my accent. For me, it’s French and English. Though I have to be fluent in English I know, I cannot forget French because it was my first language. I make an effort to write a couple of French essays or stories in a week. Though during the week and in school I use English my mother allows us to use French on the weekends as freely as we want.